As a move to add value to agricultural production, the National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA) is set to establish a garri processing plant in Ogun State to boost the cassava value chain and boost job creation for youths in the country.
The cassava packaging plant is expected to complement the Integrated Farm Estates to be established in the three Senatorial zones of the state.
The farm estate would comprise of different agricultural activities which include farming, processing and packaging areas, commodity market, residential areas and schools.
The Executive Secretary of NALDA Prince Paul Ikonne disclosed this when he paid a courtesy visit to the Governor of Ogun State, Dr Dapo Abiodun.
Ikonne while briefing the governor on his visit to the state, said NALDA visit is to reactivate its 700 hectares of land and possibly get more lands from the state government for the establishment of an Integrated Farm Estate in the three Senatorial Zones of the state, establish a Garri processing and packaging plant and train two hundred graduates with agric and science background on Soil testing technology.
“Mr President has directed us to create employment and achieve food security through NALDA’s mandate, we are running projects which Ogun state has been slated to be one of the pilot states.”
“NALDA integrated Farm Estate is going to be sighted in the three senatorial zones in the state and the Integrated Farm Estate is a concept that takes in everything from production to processing to packaging and marketing and it would also have residential areas for farmers.
“NALDA would be requesting you to provide the lands suitable for this project and as soon as the land is made available NALDA would commence work.”
“Knowing that Ogun State has the largest capacity in Cassava production, our garri packaging plant would be located in Ogun State, whereby NALDA would be the off-taker from the farmers, they would process it and package accordingly and move it into the market, so putting this plant here in Ogun state would create more opportunities and also encourage the farmers to produce more knowing there would be a reward.”
Ikonne further noted that the state government would select 200 young graduates for the training that would commence as soon as the selections are made.
“we are training young Nigerians based on Mr President’s directive on soil testing and extension services, Ogun state is expected to nominate 200 young graduates that have agric or science degrees that would undertake this intensive 2 weeks training in the first phase, they would be empowered by NALDA with soil test kits and implements to collect soil samples and they would begin to generate money from the programme thereby making a living for themselves”
The Governor of Ogun State, Dr Dapo Abiodun, stated that his state decided to key into President Buhari’s agricultural drive because the state the industrial hub of the country and raw materials are needed to sustain these industries.
“For us, we felt it important to key into Mr President’s ‘grow what you eat and eat what you grow’ program, we appreciate the act that We are the industrial capital of this country and to sustain that, we need to continue to sustain our agro produce programme because that’s the engine room of inputs for industrialisation and since Mr President gave his blessing, we haven’t looked back.”
He said the state believes in public-private sector partnerships and working towards creating the enabling environment for such partnerships.
He said the state is the largest cassava producer in the country would benefit immensely from the establishment of the garri processing plant.
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